I have found Team Fastrax's illustrations of the blocks at http://teamfastrax.com/4way.html, but I can't seem to find anything similar for the randoms. The stamped pictures from the official dive pool don't show how you'd typically do a formation and who is in what position...

Thanks for the tip. The app does show who is in what position, but it still draws all jumbers boxed out and not in a realistic position. For example when doing "L" the tail usually stays to the IC's left as in Fastrax's pdf and not straight behind him as shown in the app and the official documents.

Potentially many, but I can think of 3 [edit: particularly] useful ones

L's = we've used 3 of the (at least 16) variations (not counting those that come from slot switchers)

- OC outfacing (Point cats the OC) is our most common - OC cats on the Tail (the other end of it) seems to be more useful even and I'm coming to prefer that one (IMO) - the zigzag version (OC presents the sidebody to IC) is uncomfortable for very new teams and I don't recommend it unless all 4 teammates are really solid and comfy with alternate builds

We're flexible on the build for L, B (bunches), N, 22 (doesn't really count since our alternate option is simply the B slots - even on a repeater), 9 (lots of options on 9) sometimes C, we used to do the wrapped up Q on occasion, but it just slowed the random work up so we stopped that

Seems that 15 should allow options but it never really came up in any draw.....

I try not to get too clever (that opinion is result of experience ) - rarely do you get something for nothing - a shorter move of one guy will result in a bigger move for someone later in the page or even in that transition. But when you do, it's usually blatantly obvious (example 6-N-M) - so then the trade off is will the non-standard build cause teammates to hesitate vs can EVERYBODY handle it.

What's the point of saving a second on paper, when, during the dive, just one guy freezes up from seeing something unfamiliar and has to recover?

here's a fun one for Intermediate: 9-7 (it can be engineered such that each random transition requires no one to make more than a 90, usually the other two people don't even move). IMO - it's also a recipe for disaster unless all 4 people have steel traps for brains....